I'm a wife to my "Mr. Right". A momma of five. A maker of slow food and simple living. A collector of memories, a keeper of books, and a champion for books that make memories. An addict who likes my half-and-half with a splash of coffee. A fractured pot transformed by the One Who makes broken things beautiful. I heart homeschooling, brake for libraries, and am glad you're here with me on the journey! Be sure to subscribe to my monthly newsletter. Or, follow along with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google +, Youtube, or Pinterest.

Friday, August 8, 2014

What We're Reading in August 2014

CONFESSION TIME: The beach, the park, the county fair, and lots and lots of sun this past month have left quite a thick layer of dust on our stack of books. We've tried to nab moments of literary adventure here and there as we've been able, BUT, with summer passing at supersonic speed I'm OK with letting the dust settle a bit longer in order that we can savor a few more moments running, swimming, and scratching mosquito bites in the sun.

Read Aloud- Everybody

Rabbit Hill- Similar to the sweet adventures of a classic Beatrix Potter tale, this book has been on my TO READ list for quite some time. We're finally getting around to it.

Jamie- that's me!

Conform- This highly controversial new book from Glenn Beck has me staying up until well past midnight each night. It's the kind of book that has me elbowing The Hubs and reading large portions of it aloud to him...whether he likes it or not. It is an eye-opening look at the hijacking of our country's educational system.

12 comments:

I really enjoy your book lists. My son is seven and your lists give me a great place to start looking for good books for him. I have reserved at the library many of the character- building books for boys you suggested in previous posts. Thanks so much for your blog!

While I am no fan of Glenn Beck, I do have to agree with some of what he says in this book. The way the American education system is setup, does not allow for higher level of thinking, stifles imagination, and it doesn't even consider setting up for lifelong learning in any way. Democrats pander to teachers unions and Republicans to the companies who produce textbooks/tests, neither side really truly seems to care for the education of American children. Its a very very sad, low point in American education. Its why we homeschool. I am not about to out my kids in the system and hope they get things figured out in time for my children.

I put the Glen Beck book on my "to read" list. Thanks, Jamie! We are a family that doesn't meet the requirements to opt out of mandatory testing starting in the 4th grade. We are ardently staying away from the Common Core in our curriculum choices but sometimes I wonder what my sweeties will do with their mandatory Common Core laden tests in years to come. Do you ever worry about that with your kiddos? Not that I am going to change our homeschooling in any way to accommodate CC but man! It does make me break out on a sweat for my kids come 4th grade.

Yes, unfortunately, many of the same people in charge of writing the Common Core standards are also on the committees in charge of overseeing the main college-ready examinations like the SAT and ACT. One of the stages in this hijacking of our educational system is to rewrite those exams to reflect Common Core standards. Therefor, if you steer your child's educational course away from these dumbed-down, communistic learning standards, you put them at risk of doing poorly on these tests. It won't matter so much that they know that 1+1=2. It will only matter HOW they got their answer...by using Common Core steps. A child who is not familiar with those ridiculous steps of math ??problem solving?? will get the answer wrong even if they answer correctly.

I've looked into some practical steps for other mama's and myself in this predicament. And it seems there are two options from what I've read. (Though I'm sure there are more, these were the two I kept running into the most). 1.) Do not concern yourself with Common Core and trust that your kids will do well enough because of their innate intelligence (or well enough that the state won't say "boo" about their score. 2.) Teach both. Teach truth. Teach REAL math. REAL problem solving skills and high caliber teaching all around. And then before testing teach incremental bursts of Common Core "process". As in, if you want to do well on the math section this is how you'll have to do it. But both of these options seem scary to me. One could potentially allow my kids to do terribly on the test even though they are above average kids, thereby putting us on our state's radar-screen. And the other will find my kids overburdened with too much information. Even if I tell them after testing they can promptly forget everything they just learned in the Common Core vein they will still have had hold logic and nonsense in their minds at the same time confounding their efforts. Jamie, how do you and your mama friends plan on helping your kids succeed despite Common Core?

Hey! I wanted to email this to you, but don't have your email and we can't talk on FB anymore... So...Our oldest just started her own blog geared toward girls her age. She only has one post and an "about" page, but she's excited about it and working on her next post. I'm using it as her homeschool writing, photography, computer skills project for the year. Thought your daughter may enjoy looking it up. www.emiliachristine.com :)

Our read alouds are purely for pleasure. We talk about the story line a bit, but mostly we just enjoy the words. We have other opportunities to dissect books during history and science. I use read aloud time to instill a love of literature which I think would be lost if I required additional work with it.

A Note from Jamie

Welcome to the Unlikely Homeschool! I'm so glad you've joined me on the journey. Like all of life's greatest adventures, homeschooling, for us, has been filled with many unexpected surprises...both triumphs and occasional tragedies. The path will probably never be straight, but with our eyes firmly fixed on our Guide and the calling that He has placed in our lives to "teach them when we sit at home, when we walk by the way, when we lie down, and when we rise up," the journey is sure to be memorable.

If you have a question, an idea worth sharing, or just need a good chat with a girlfriend, email me at: theunlikelyhomeschool@yahoo.com

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